Conventionally, various modes of cut sheet paper printers have been known in which each sheet of cut sheet paper is automatically supplied to a printing unit one sheet at a time, and a print are made on each sheet of paper.
In such a cut sheet paper printer, the adjustment of the positions of the printed images with respect to the cut sheet paper is carried out by adjusting the paper feeding timing with respect to the printing unit for vertical adjustment, and by adjusting the lateral position of the cut sheet paper on the paper feed table for lateral adjustment. Such adjustment mechanisms are disclosed, for instance in Japanese patent laid open publication (kokai) No. 2-220880 and Japanese patent laid open publication (kokai) No. 63-218435, and the contents of these prior published patent applications are herein incorporated by reference.
In such a cut sheet paper printer, there is a lower limit to the size of the cut sheet paper that can be printed, and printing on such small sized card-like printing sheets as business cards, labels, and tags have been practically impossible because they cannot be automatically fed by themselves.
Therefore, when such small sized card-like printing sheets are desired to be printed, they are typically removably attached to a base sheet having a size corresponding to the size of the cut sheet paper that can be safely printed, and the base sheet along with the card-like printing sheets is automatically fed into the printing unit.
In this case, a printing master plate is required to be prepared so as to correspond to the layout of the card-like printing sheets on the base sheet, and the adjustment of the printing positions with respect to the card-like printing sheets on the base sheet can be carried out vertically by adjusting the paper feeding timing and laterally by adjusting the position of the base sheets on the paper feed table.
Adjustment of the positions or the registration of the printed images on the card-like printing sheets arranged on the base sheet is carried out by means of test printing in the same way as in the process of printing cut sheet paper, and therefore requires human intervention. This process of registration is difficult to accomplish, and typically involves trial and error steps involving a number of test prints.
In particular, when printing business cards, inherently, an extremely accurate registration is required, and the necessary expertise in achieving the necessary accuracy of registration is beyond the reach of inexperienced users.
Further, when preparing a printing master plate such as a stencil master plate by reading an original image with an image scanner and duplicating the image on the master plate, the positioning of the original image during such a reading process must be carried out according to the layout of the card-like printing sheets on the base sheet. In particular, when a plurality of card-like printing sheets are mounted on a single base sheet, and a print is to be made on each of the card-like printing sheets, the positioning of the original image must coincide with the layout of the card-like printing sheets, and this requires an extremely high level of dexterity which is practically beyond the reach of normal users.